University Star

After seven seasons of mediocre play on the court, men’s basketball coach Doug Davalos must be held accountable for the team’s dismal performance and find a job elsewhere.

Davalos is the only person affiliated with men’s basketball who talks to media outlets after the team is defeated, and he often states the losses are “all on him.” The number of losses he has had to take responsibility for has swelled to 121 over his seven years at the helm of the men’s basketball program. Davalos’ contract is over at the end of this season, and university and athletics officials need to be looking for a new coach.

Davalos had four full years to fully comprise a team he and his staff specifically recruited—then he had three years on top of that. All in all, Davalos and his staff had seven total years to build a team and play the exact style of basketball the program wanted, but has very little to show for it.

The 21 head coaches that were hired to basketball’s Division I level in 2006 still have a job today, and Davalos is the only one who has failed to produce a winning season and take a team to a national tournament such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I Basketball Championship. There are coaches hired in 2006 who have worse records than Davalos over time, but all have had at least one season they can hang their hat on. Those other coaches at least have one season in which the team actually won more games than it lost.

As a program, the last time Texas State won a conference tournament was 1997. The Bobcats have only made it to the NCAA twice and have never won the tournament. Other WAC schools like Seattle University have had longer tournament absences since 1969, but the Redhawks have at least made it to the tournament 11 times. It is clearly time for a change in Bobcat country.

Nothing is going right in the realm of Texas State men’s basketball. Game attendance numbers are some of the worst in the nation, especially considering the number of students who reside less than a mile away from where the team takes the court. Strahan Coliseum is in dire need of improvements and renovations, and those aspects should be the athletic department’s biggest concern moving forward. Even with aesthetic improvements, the bottom line is students and fans do not enjoy watching their team lose. Texas State has struggled to win at home, and their home record has decreased every year since they were 12-4 in 2008. The team is 4-11 at home this season. The program is at its lowest point overall (9-20) since the 2006 season, which was Davalos’ first year in charge when the Bobcats finished 10-20.

The program is not at a point where it is getting better but is instead back to the sinkhole it was in when Davalos took over. If Texas State wants to make its men’s basketball team into the profitable and successful program it could be, it needs to find a new head coach.